“What I personally hated about Godfather, this film fixed tenfold, primarily in the narrative structure... but what I loved about Godfather was entirely missing from this film.”
GOODFELLAS was a biographical crime drama film released in 1990, written and directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Ray Liotta as Henry Hill, Robert De Niro as “Jimmy the Gent”, Joe Pesci as Tommy, Lorraine Bracco as Karen, and Paul Sorvino as “Paulie”. It’s basically about this kid who grows up obsessing over the mob, gets taken under the wing of some local wiseguys, and moves his way up the ranks stealing stuff and living like a total rockstar. He marries a girl who gets sucked right into the flashy lifestyle alongside him, but as the years go on, his hothead psycho buddy and his cold-blooded mentor start pulling off insane heists, body counts start piling up, and paranoia starts to build.
52-WEEK MOVIE CHALLENGE #7 - A FILM ABOUT AN INFAMOUS GANGSTER
Over the years, I’ve come to be known as the guy with a huge number of hot takes about movies, but none of them are usually as pronounced as my distaste for mobster films in general. One of my biggest hot takes was that I was once known as the only guy who hates The Godfather, and that’s honestly a stretch. I don’t hate the film, but I certainly don’t like it... and to some, that equates to hate. I can look at The Godfather and recognize its technical brilliance. A lot of the things it does feel very much like a masterpiece to me: the musical score, the cinematography, the performances, production design, wardrobe choices, and practical effects. That film is memorable in a lot of areas that I downright admire, but I just don’t like it because I don’t like mobsters. There are a grand total of two mafia-type movies I’ve enjoyed in my life that I can think of: Road to Perdition and the most hated of the trilogy, The Godfather Part III. The reason why has a lot more to do with morality, character development, and purpose. Most mafia films kind of feel aimless to me, and The Godfather is the biggest example. It spans many years, and never has a great transition to remind people we jumped as many years as we did. The Irishman did something similar, and I hated The Irishman. I had never seen Goodfellas until now because of my distaste for the genre. I’ve also never seen Scarface or Public Enemies. The list goes on. I don’t think it’s impossible for me to like one, I just think I’m insanely picky. However, I had heard Goodfellas is a masterpiece going in. I also heard some people preferred The Godfather while others preferred this. That was probably the most compelling argument. I was very interested in seeing which movie I personally preferred... and the answer isn’t really that easy.
What I personally hated about The Godfather, this film fixed tenfold, primarily in the narrative structure... but what I loved about The Godfather was entirely missing from this film. I really don’t think Goodfellas has the sweeping grandiose cinematography or epic score of The Godfather or anything like that. It doesn’t FEEL like a masterpiece in the same way, but I did like the structure because this was following a story I could understand. Nobody had thick Italian accents. The politics were a lot clearer and more understandable, and because of that, the characters were automatically a lot more relatable and realistic in my eyes.
Yet, the problem I ended up having with the film is the same problem I have with most mafia films. Nothing really happens. I mean, a lot happens, don’t get me wrong, but in terms of character development, this character played by Ray Liotta learns practically nothing in the two-and-a-half-hour runtime. It doesn’t need a happy ending, I couldn’t care less about that. However, I do like character development. I like goal-oriented storytelling, I like obstacles... because otherwise, it feels aimless to me. I get that it’s based on a true story and that’s a big part of it, but it really did feel like a random collection of events that happen in the movie... with a crap ton of narration. Have I explained yet how much I don’t like narration? Sometimes it works. Sometimes it’s too much, and in Goodfellas it was nonstop. My wife heard me watching the movie, didn’t know what it was, and was like, “Whatever you’re watching sounds like the most boring thing in the world.”
I sound like I’m crapping on the movie, and I’m really not. I think in general, the movie is made well enough. The performances are all pretty good, and the casting is even better. I like the casting in this film far more than the casting in The Godfather. I think the politics and paranoia of living in an organized crime family were depicted a lot better here. Joe Pesci is downright insane and unpredictable. Love him here. De Niro actually feels like a tough guy for once. I grew up watching him in funnier roles like Meet the Parents where they more or less make fun of his tough guy persona. Here, it was legit. There are long one-take shots that are impressive, along with some visual effects during some of the killings that were pretty darn solid.
I don’t actually hate this movie. It is just unfortunately among a million other mafia films that I just don’t like. My end score is actually pretty good for me, all things considered.
Unbiased/Technical Score - 33/50 or 66%
Biased/Entertainment Score - 33/50 or 66%
Total Combined Score - 66/100 or 66%